The Problem of the Puer Aeternus by Marie-Louise von Franz

Author:Marie-Louise von Franz
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi, epub, pdf
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

[12] See "The Psychology of the Transference," The Practice of Psychotherapy, CW 16, par. 384.

[13] The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche, CW 8, pars. 343ff.

[14] See "The Psychology of the Child Archetype," The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, CW 9i, esp. pars. 285ff.

[15] Here, I am speaking of the strictly Freudian school; there are now modified schools but I am referring to the original attitude.

[16] I heard since that the dreamer died in the middle of life.

Lecture 8

We stopped in the middle of the dream which the man had when lying on the girl's lap, in which he was slowly falling into the big split within the earth. You will remember that he first saw the stars in the heavens below, then an explosion of light, afterward fields, as one sees them from an airplane, and then a gray and dirty stagnant pool of water which was like ice but did not reflect. He then half wakes and says to himself that he is not afraid but that water is a symbol of the mother, into which he does not want to fall. Then, at the bottom of the valley, a round spot of light again appears, the borders of which are a bit blurred. This explodes like a soap bubble. In this spot of light he sees a skull and thinks that this is strange, for what has death to do with all this? He repeats that he is not terribly afraid but continues to fall slowly in the same place. Then, the dream says, the whole thing disappears and is replaced by a yellow linoleum floor with brown spots. The landscape has completely lost its gigantic proportions, and the dreamer wonders why there is linoleum at the bottom of the valley and says that it is really surrealistic. It is all very clear and he can see it quite plainly. He laughs a little about the linoleum, and in the letter he sent accompanying the dream he added: "I don't like linoleum. It is always cold and not aesthetic. I don't like it." He obviously has a strong feeling against it.

We have discussed the problem of the skull and said that, in a way, the dreamer is right in saying that falling into this water would be falling into the valley, where there is the skull; he would be falling into his own mortality and the stagnating aspect of matter. I mentioned last time that he did actually leave the girl in whose company he had had this dream, and afterward had an affair with a Russian prostitute who had a number of Negro lovers who several times tried to kill him. So one could say that he really did fall into a dirty pool and really risked death and complete stagnation. The Russian prostitute was a fat, earthy woman, obviously a mother figure, so in spite of his not wanting to fall into this condition-according to the dreamhe did afterward go through this phase and, so to speak, lost his wings completely.

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